A watery laugh fluttered from my chest. “I bet you do.”
The nursery. The murals. The furniture. He’d orchestrated all of it and managed to keep it a surprise for me.
I slid from his embrace, my heart feeling like it was about to burst. Walking the perimeter of the room, I stopped at the dresser, opening the drawers to find all the gifts from his family inside.
“I just told Jamie to put everything in drawers for now. Figured you’d want to unpack it all and decide where it goes.”
I nodded, unable to speak. This was why he’d kept everything in the other room and brushed off my questions about putting it away somewhere earlier.
With my hand still in his, I continued walking around the room, taking a closer look at the details of the mural. “Who painted the walls?”
“Kit.”
I exhaled. “Of course.” I’d forgotten his cousin was a painter with his own art studio in Friendship.Pregnancy brain.“I can’t believe I had no idea. I didn’t even smell the paint.”
“He’s been working every day when we’ve been out on deliveries. He worked with the window open and put some vanilla extract out. I guess it helps soak up the paint fumes,” Max said as I took a closer look at the magical murals. “He finished yesterday and said to give it a night to dry before letting Jamie deliver the furniture.”
“It’s beautiful.” I blinked back another round of tears that hit me unexpectedly. “Perfect, really.”
“It was Jamie who texted me when we were at the store. He ran late getting the furniture over here today, so that’s why we stopped at the store,” Max said, his voice lowering. “I was waiting for his text to tell me when he was finished and gone.”
And I’d assumed the worst.
“So you don’t want me to move back into the apartment?” I teased hoarsely.
“I’m not giving you a choice, my little wife.” He put his hands on my waist and pulled me as close to him as my belly would allow.
“Going to chain me to your bed?”
“I just might,” he husked. “But I also told Wade that his brother and his brother’s daughter could stay at the apartment for a few months.”
“Is everything okay?”
He gave a shrug. “I didn’t pry, but I’m guessing there are some issues with the press again leaving him alone. That’s usually the only time Blaze comes to Friendship, to get Paisley away from the media.”
I couldn’t imagine. It was bad enough when I had to imagine all the ways the McCormicks planned to show off their grandchild. The formal announcements and massive parties they wanted to hold. The way Mrs. McCormick talked about having the baby at Mr. McCormick’s campaign rallies for good PR. It made me sick, thinking of how they just wanted a grandchild to augment their image. It was even worse to imagine being a target of publicity that was only in it for the money.And to target a small child.
“He’s going to be fine, Daze,” Max murmured, sensing where my thoughts had gone. “We’ll make sure he gets some privacy here.”
I sighed and blinked up at him, his handsome face swimming into focus. “I still can’t believe you did all this.”
“Everything I’ve done has been for you, Daze. It’s been you all along.”
I felt something shift inside me. Turning my mind from impossible to believe him to impossible not to.
“I know we went about things in a backward order. Marriage, then moving in together, then a baby, but I don’t want anything else, Daze. And I definitely don’t want to go backward, or in any direction that doesn’t consist of waking up to you in my home, in my bed, every morning. Forever.”
“Max…” I locked my arms around his neck, pulling myself up closer.
“I love you, Daisy. You’re home for me.”
My heart erupted in a flurry of beats. I wasn’t falling—I’d fallen. Hard. For my convenient husband. For the fantasy disguised for years as my friend.
Tears dotted the corners of my eyes.
“I love you too.”
I pushed up on my toes, knowing Max lowered his head enough so I could kiss him. And boy, did I kiss him. I kissed him like his mouth could get me drunk, and most times, I swore it did. The depth of his kiss, the intoxicating strokes of his tongue…by the time I pulled away, my legs trembled from being up on my toes too long, the room starting to sway.
